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A top-ranking official at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has abruptly retired from his post.
According to STAT News, Larry Tabak, a dentist and researcher, was the longtime No. 2 official at the agency.
At NIH, longtime second-in-command Larry Tabak to retire https://t.co/EBrWnvC0gr
— Matthew Herper (@matthewherper) February 12, 2025
Per STAT News:
Tabak, a dentist and researcher, was appointed as the NIH’s principal deputy director in 2010. His tenure spans four presidential administrations, and includes a nearly two-year stint as the agency’s acting director following the 2021 departure of its longtime leader, Francis Collins.
That Tabak, at the age of 73, is retiring is hardly a shock. But it comes at a time of deep uncertainty for the NIH, the federal government’s $47 billion biomedical research agency.
Dentist Lawrence Tabak, who we suspect was a key gatekeeper inside the HHS responsible for suppressing fluoride research, has retired from NIH. pic.twitter.com/ACWpe63d37
— Fluoride Action Network (@FluorideAction) February 13, 2025
According to the New York Post, Tabak admitted to Congress last year that the agency funded gain-of-function research in China.
NIH principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak, who led agency during COVID, abruptly resigns https://t.co/YCWQVxdm4z pic.twitter.com/a6XsXEIr94
— New York Post (@nypost) February 13, 2025
From the New York Post:
Tabak, the No. 2 official at NIH, did not provide a reason for his departure in a notice to colleagues.
“It has been an enormous privilege to work with each of you (and your predecessors) to support and further the critical NIH mission,” Tabak wrote in an email obtained by the New York Times.
The outlet reported that Tabak, who had already been passed over to become acting director of the NIH under President Trump, was facing a reassignment to a role that he found unacceptable.
Tabak led the NIH during part of the COVID-19 pandemic and faced scrutiny from congressional Republicans over federal grants provided to Manhattan-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance for bat coronavirus research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China – the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an October 2021 letter to Congress, Tabak appeared to contradict former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s testimony from May of that year denying that the NIH funded the controversial research.
Tabak’s resignation coincided with the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.
BREAKING: Senate Confirms RFK Jr. As Secretary Of The Department Of Health And Human Services
The NIH is an agency under the HHS department.
“Kennedy had indicated ahead of his confirmation he would move to cut at least 600 NIH jobs,” the New York Post noted.